This is a 10 minute sketch, where I hoped to capture the essence of the coffee cup, along with the grain of the wood table that it is perched upon.

It's a loose, playful pencil sketch blending the feel of the plays of lights and darks.

How to Survive an Art Critique

by Miranda Aschenbrenner

This post is by guest author, Miranda Aschenbrenner. This article has been edited and published with the author's permission. You should submit an article and share your views as a guest author by clicking here.

In art school, the most stressful part of any class was always the critique. This was when you put the results of your hard work up in front of everyone, explained your ideas, and waited for the criticisms - ahem, feedback - to come rolling in. This was when you put it all on the line to find out if anyone else thought what you were doing was valid.

Even if you're not in art school, life is full of situations where you have to expose yourself to other people's judgments. Whether it's an informal critique through a gallery, an artist talk or exhibition, a studio visit, or just your friends coming to your house, chances are you've been in a position where other people have seen your work and have had something to say about it.

Even when you're content with your direction and don't care what others think of it, it can be hurtful to hear negative comments. If you're already unsure or a little insecure, it can be downright damaging. Heck, even the positive comments can be confusing, leaving you to wonder, "is that really how people see my work?"

Artists constantly receive comments, criticisms and general feedback about their art. As an artist, you need to learn how to deal with these without letting it effect you too much. Here are some strategies to help you survive a formal or informal critique. 

Remember Where They're Coming From

No matter how objective people try to be, their own beliefs, likes and dislikes, and experiences will inform any comments they make about your art. Other artists sometimes give advice that encourages you to work in a way that is similar to their approach. This isn't intentional, it's just that they are coming from a place that's familiar to them. I am more likely to comment on the formal qualities of an artwork, just because that is what I'm interested in myself.

Take it With a Grain (or a Shakerful) of Salt

People only give their opinions; there's no such thing as right or wrong.  Even if the person giving advice is a respected artist, your professor, or a gallery curator, it doesn't mean that theirs is the definitive voice on the matter. Their opinion may be more educated than others', but at the end of the day it's still an opinion. Don't take any critique as the gospel truth. You need to weigh the advice and use what you can.

Ask Yourself, "Is it Relevant?"

It's important to examine any advice you're given and determine whether or not it relates to your art practice. If you're getting feedback that seem to focus on something completely different than what you're interested in, it may mean that your "message" is somehow being diluted by something else in your art.

I experienced this when I was at school. I was painting tools on doors, choosing tools only because of their relationship to construction. In my head, I just thought of them as shapes in a composition. In my critiques though, I got all kinds of feedback about the meaning the tools brought to the work. If you find that the feedback you're getting has nothing to do with your work, figure out how you can become more focused. I got rid of the tools altogether and just painted rectangles!

Remember it for Later

Another thing I like to do is to file away criticism for later. It's often difficult to take it in all at once. It's easier to mull it over when you get the chance, and sift through to find what is usefdul. Sometimes, the feedback you get isn't relevant now, but it might be relevant later in your career. I still think on critiques I had several years ago to see if there's anything new that I can take from them. Ideas that seemed completely off the wall at the time might suddenly be very intriguing!

Don't Take it Personally

If you have a particularly bad critique, or lots of negative feedback, try not to take it personally. For the most part, people are only trying to help you, in their own way (which isn't always helpful, of course, but it's the thought that counts!). Sometimes, it can seem like people go out of their way to be mean and nasty. In those cases, you should still try to
remember that it's not about you! It's likely more about those people and their insecurity and their issues. You will need to develop a thick skin, but just remember, it's something we all have to deal with!

I hate to say it, but this applies to positive feedback as well! Enjoy it because you deserve it, but don't let it go to your head! It's still just one person's opinion, and if you take it for granted, it could make the negative feedback that much harder to take. I wish I had known this ten years ago! All throughout high school I got awesome grades in art; I was one of the top students. Then I went on to university and suddenly I was surrounded by all the other people who were top students in their schools.  My first grades were quite a shock!

Ask Yourself, "Is it True?"

This is the point when you need to be really honest with yourself. Don't brush off every negative comment and think that everyone is too blind to see your true talent. Take a good hard look at yourself and ask yourself, "is it true?" If it is, suck it up! Don't wallow in it! Figure out what you need to do to fix it, and then do it. It won't be easy, but it is necessary. We all need good, honest criticism to be able to grow and reach our full potential!

And as for the strange comments...

I've gotten of weird responses to my work. Not bad ones, but ones that made me think to myself, "what the heck?" People also seem to like making really weird suggestions. I can't tell you how many times people have suggested that my abstract paintings should spin. To me, the idea is absurd; I couldn't think of anything I'd want to do less! But that's what they see, and at the end of the day I'm just grateful that something about my work moved them enough to think beyond what was in front of their eyes.  My advice: laugh it off and don't worry about it!

There you have it, my guide to surviving a critique! What strategies do you use? 
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Another of Seth Godin's questions to inspire some thoughts is "how much freedom are you willing to trade for opportunity and why?"
The 3 words that stand out here are FREEDOM, TRADE, OPPORTUNITY- all are open to interpretation in my mind.
What is freedom, how would you define it?
For me it's about making choices, knowing what the choices are, and knowing which choices are going to yield the best return.
Trade- exchanging one thing, activity or set of circumstances for another.
Opportunity- the return that is the result and catalyst to allow the freedom to make choices that are going to bring growth.
How does this relate to work and to making art?  My work day is a series of routines in which I've had the freedom to choose how to apportion the hours of the day.  Within this routine is a sense of rhthym, stability and predictability-within which the environment to create is established.  These are the conditions that are much like planting a garden.
Preparing the soil is like arranging the studio space to be ergonomically and environmentally functional.
Planting the seeds are like having the materials and tools along with the ideas to create.
The sun, water, removing weeds, etc are the conditions that nourish the growth of the plant- which are like the established routine for working, knowing that I'm going to show up in the studio.
Once all of these conditions come together, the plant has the freedom and (almost without choice) will grow.
Once I am engrossed in a project, its as though the project takes on a life of its own, I am now the facilitator to provide the force or energy to bring it to fruition.
Than the opportunity of both producing and then having someone receive the project as being useful to them completes the cycle, and allows for another cycle to begin.

This week a conversation between myself and 2 new friends, (a woman newly exploring her art expression after retiring from a corporate career and a recently opened art gallery owner) was introduced during a lunch date. 
The 2 women are Donna Belleson, emerging artist and Christina Heintzelman, owner of Gallery Blu in Harrisburg, PA.  The trigger for the conversation was the question "how do you measure success?"  We three women are at a crossroads in our lives.  If we could divide our productive years into 3 sections, we would be entering the last section of those years.  And so this also plays into the conversation of how we describe success.  Along with that is a sense of merging a spiritual path with our work, and how that would play out.
While we looked at our individual paths, we also noticed the shared elements of who we are.  We all agreed that we are facilitators and wish to engage the community on a larger scale through giving and nurturing with our work.
We all felt that this conversation would also facilitate a visioning for each of us to manifest a dream.  We are planning to continue the conversation amongst ourselves and others who might be encouraged to join in.  This may seem open ended at this time, but I welcome your thoughts.

This is a 15 minute pencil sketch in which I allowed my pencil to do the talking.  I had no preconceived idea when I started this sketch, it was left to spontaneity, moment by moment.

Have you ever wanted to try painting in watercolor but didn't know where to start?  If you are in the tri-state area, you now have an opportunity to join a beginner class to learn the basics of watercolor painting.  What a great time to celebrate the season of spring by learning something new with an attitude of fun.

Watercolors with an

Attitude

Instructor: Joann Wells Greenbaum

Beginning watercolor techniques with an attitude of fun. No experience needed. Course includes guided examples of delightful designs and composition.

Dates: 6 Mondays, April 13-May 18

Time:   3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Location: Cedarwood Center for the Arts

4 Fowler Street

Pt. Jervis, N.Y.

Information & registration call Evelyn Kish

845-856-2307

I'd like to welcome you to view my new fan page on facebook, if you haven't yet.   Here you will see new works and some recent favorites.  Please feel free to click "become a fan" if you'd like to know about updates of new paintings.
Thank you for checking it out.
Wishing you all a smile with the hope of spring around the corner.

Going back to basic for me means to simplify and prune away distractions to my practice as an artist and in life.  This week I purchased a yogurt maker so that I can make healthier yogurt while helping the environment by not recycling so many empty plastic yogurt containers.
I've also reestablished a routine that is very grounding to my artistic soul.  That is making a  15 minute pencil drawing  a day.  The purpose of this exercise is to be in touch with the love of connecting heart and soul with pencil and paper, pure and simple.  The exercise is like a tonic, connecting me to the present environment, removing distractions from my mind.  This drawing is of a detail in my studio, showing the containers that I mix my gouache paints in, along with some books on a table.

I'm writing about artists style in the hopes of determining how to descriminate my own artistic style.

I'm also discovering how many others have written about the same topic. Alyson Stanfield has made a list on her website about what is involved in determining an artists style.

I would like to say that one of the most important elements in discovering your style is “time”. That translates into spending many hours in studying othere artists works that you admire. Than spending many hours of time in drawing/painting, referencing the styles that you admire. It may appear to be copying at first, and these drawings are for study purposes only. But ultimately your practice will turn these studies into a style that reflects your own inner interpretations.

I think the age old dilemma of merging the old with the new in art, technology, even in our concepts of ourselves, is an ongoing debate. I have been influenced in my art by the traditional Japanese woodblock prints. These have been a reference point which I translate in a new way with my current paintings on East Meets West. The three images shown here and below are the 1^st  and 2nd draft, along with this final painting in gouache, ink, and charcoal.

2nd draft for "Geisha in Sunglasses"

First draft for "Geisha in Sunglasses"

  The following excerpt was written by Russian photographer 

Irakly Shanidze:

"Virtually anyone who did not cut English class in high school can easily recognize a poem by Longfellow or Shakespeare, even if it is one he has never read before. The phenomenon of individual style, so profoundly felt in poetry, is also present in other types of creative self-expression.  While there can exist, in addition to individual style, a style that is characteristic of a certain period in history or geographic location, we can easily distinguish the paintings of Rubens or Rembrandt from others which bear the same characteristic features of all Renaissance painters. The individual style of an artist, as unique as handwriting, allows us to recognize the artist’s work as a combination of techniques employed and visual elements used: perspective, composition, palette, tonality, brush stroke and even the choice of subjects. This phenomenon feels completely natural to the viewer, just as it does not surprise us that a writer or a poet uses characteristic vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and rhyming patterns in his work."

I chose one of my paintings that was inspired by Kiyomasu, the 17th century Japanese artist who perfected the technique of "gourd legs"(the exaggeration of the leg muscles) and "earthworm lines" (the curvilinear outline of the figure) to convey a sense of the power and violent action of a type of flamboyant performance of Kabuki.

 

What is an artist's style and how does an artist determine a style? These are timeless questions that I will attempt to respond to, along with the help of a few experts, in this month's blog entries.

Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman, authors of “Inside the Business of Illustration”

define Individual Style as “a by-product of our limitations, interests, and abilities. Everyone has a style that is an outgrowth of continuous work. The connections between your drawing, painting, and image making get stronger with time. That recognizable link in your work is your style.”

Picasso said that “style is what you call what other people do.”

The practice of making art and images continues to connect me with my visual language that is defined as style.  Though I have seen changes in subject in my work, I am also seeing an underlying feeling that comes through as "me".

Vincent van Gogh's chair is one of my favorites by the artist who painted it around 1888.
 During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.